A wide variety of mobility devices (hereinafter also referred to as “rollators”) exist to assist in bipedal movement. Most of these devices rely upon upper body support being maintained through an extended arm position with hands gripping support bars, which are part of the rollator structure. Several rollator inventions have claimed improvement over conventional rollators by incorporating arm rests rather than grip bars for assistive body support (e.g., as described in US 2005/0156395A1, EP 1020173A2, EP 2086493B1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,547,027B2 and 7,111,856B1, each of which is herein incorporated by reference).
While arm support platforms have been claimed to assist in maintaining a more erect locomotor posture, the under girding architectures of conventional rollators do not provide for a normal and stable distribution of the user's center of body weight within his base of support or centrally within the rollator's structural base of support. Furthermore, deviations from the horizontal arm platform position (saggital plane: tilting up or down) or deviations from a linear position (horizontal plane: turning platform inward or outward) have not been designed for the purpose of intentionally changing the position of the user's center of gravity relative to that of the rollator's base of support. Moreover, deviations in the horizontal platform position have not been a subject of design in accommodating user needs related to stability, walking speed, and body ponderosity.
It has been demonstrated that when comparing forearm support vs. hand support for assisted weight bearing, the forearm support position was found to be more physiologically economical, and required less shoulder and upper arm muscular stress across three representative weight bearing demands (e.g., as described in “The effects of upper body weight support upon cardiovascular, metabolic, and electromyographic variables during assisted walking,” International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 23, 129-134, 2000, herein incorporated by reference).
The population of people who require the use of an assistive walking device is ever increasing. There is a need for mobility devices, e.g. walkers with arm supports, to better help with maintaining stable and erect body posture of a user and with providing low-radius rotational mobility while a user is engaged in motion. Current mobility devices lack these features and therefore, there is a need for well-built, highly functional mobility devices that can maintain optimal body posture and provide low-radius rotational mobility.